The return of high-speed logistics for the UK railway forms a key part of Rail Operations (UK) Limited’s ambitions. Speaking exclusively to RAIL, Chief Executive Officer Karl Watts said that a new company, Orion, had been formed under the ROL umbrella.

“It’s about modal shift from road to rail. We looked at this a few months ago. We recognised that actually this never worked in the past as the timings never worked.”

He said the number of commercial vehicles on roads had “gone through the roof”, and that although the number of Heavy Goods Vehicles on roads was in decline, the number of Light Goods Vehicles had risen. Watts explained that in 2012 there were 1.5 billion parcels delivered, whereas in 2020 that figure will be 4.6 billion.

1 Comment

Greg Tingey
7 January 2019 at 09:44

I heard Carl Watts give a presentaion on this, a couple of months ago … all very interesting.
They are hoping to “Re-invent the BRUTE” so to speak, & hopefully, to use “road drones” – small automated self-driving freight-only vehicles for their “last mile”, assuming regulatory approval in the next year or three.
AIUI – nothing concrete before late 2020 or early 2021.